Game 4 postgame quotes: Michel Therrien

Q. The Flyers are getting through the neutral zone especially in the first period much easier than they had in any of the first three games. Did they change anything tactically?

COACH THERRIEN: I thought the first half of the period we were pretty sharp. Even got 11 shots against six. They capitalized on their break, on their chances, and put a little bit of us on the heels for the rest of the period. That's where after that they took over.
It's tough when you're trailing by three goals. We lost the battle of our special team tonight. We finished minus-2 -- it's going to be tough. You can't win the game when you're losing the battle of the special teams.

But I've got to tell you something, since [the Flyers] complained about the penalties after the second game, well, they're disciplined. They really are. I've got to give a lot of credit to that team. They seem to be really disciplined. Because we don't have a power play. We don't have power play tonight. We didn't have it. We got two, two last game. They're disciplined.

Q. How difficult is it for your guys not to retaliate after the post-whistle stuff? And were you disappointed in the way they responded that way tonight?

COACH THERRIEN: Well, retaliate. And Brooks Orpik received three crosschecks in the head, and put his hand on the head to the player, got a penalty. It's tough. It's tough.

But, in the meantime, that's not the thing. It's like we've got to look at the big picture here. And after four games, we're leading 3-1, and that's the most important thing for us. I like our chance. I like our chance after four games, you know.

We're in good possession, good command, the same position that we were against the Rangers, and we played a solid game. And this is what we've got to focus on. You know what? It's tough to lose. We didn't quit. It's a good thing, we didn't quit. Guys are battling, and trying to make a comeback. It's tough to make those types of comebacks in the playoffs. But in the meantime, we've got to look at the big picture, and play the type of game that we play at home.

Q. Can you talk about Jordan Staal's game tonight and how big it was for what he's gone through?

COACH THERRIEN: Yeah, he played really well. We made a change with that line with [Maxime] Talbot and [Tyler] Kennedy, trying to bring some speed. Not only the reason to bring some speed, not only to try to score some goals, I was figuring that they had a hard time to handle the speed. Sometimes when you use speed and you're always first on the puck, you could draw a penalty. We didn't draw a penalty, but because they were disciplined. But in the meantime, we scored two goals.

Q. How would you assess [Evgeni] Malkin's play the last couple of games?

COACH THERRIEN: You know what? You've got to give credit to the Flyers. They checked him well. It's tough to dominate like sometimes he can dominate. But they did a great job against him.

Q. The couple goals they got to jump out to that lead, one was a tip in off [Hal] Gill's stick, the other was a power play just out in front. Two goals that weren't really Marc-Andre [Fleury]'s fault. One was kind of a fluke in there.

COACH THERRIEN: Well, the first goal was a bad break. Sometimes that happens. And we lost some battles in front of the net. They played with a lot of desperation around the net, and we lost some battles. But after the second period, I thought we bring our game to the level that I was looking for, and we've got to make sure we play that same level at home that we did in the second and third.

He's only 17 but he can see the ice so well and he moves the puck and goes to the open ice all the time, so I just think he's a player that is ready to play in the NHL. I'm really looking forward to coaching someone like this.

— U.S. National Junior Team coach Ron Wilson on Auston Matthews, the projected No. 1 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft